Allahabad High Court Grants Bail To IIT-BHU Student Gangrape Accused In UP Gangsters Act Case
The Allahabad High Court has granted bail to a man booked under the UP Gangsters Act, who is one of the accused in the notorious gangrape case involving a 20-year-old student from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Banaras Hindu University (BHU).
The accused, Saksham Patel, an alleged member of the BJP IT Cell, was arrested in December last year, and he has been in jail since then.
Although he was granted bail in the rape case by the High Court in October this year, he could not come out of jail due to the pending bail application in the Gangsters Act case (present case).
A bench of Justice Karunesh Singh Pawar granted him the relief, noting that in one case depicted in the gang chart, the applicant had already been enlarged on bail by the trial court. Apart from that, he has no criminal history.
He has been granted bail on the condition that he will not tamper with the evidence during the trial, won't pressurize/ intimidate the prosecution witness, and he shall also file an undertaking in terms of the requirement of Section 19(4)(b) of U.P. Gangsters & Anti Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 that he will not indulge in any case or misuse the liberty of bail.
The three accused – Anand alias Abhishek Chauhan, Kunal Pandey and Saksham Patel (applicant) – have been accused of raping the victim-student when she had come out of her hostel with a friend on the night of November 1, 2023. While Chauhan and Pandey have already been granted